Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Random Trivia

I just recently purchased a new 57 card of Al Aber. While reading the back of the card I noticed the trivia question.

Now, this "fact" needs some explaining as to the circumstances surrounding the performance.
In May of 1912 Ty Cobb went into the stands in New York to attack a fan that had been heckling him for most of the game. The fan had been riding Cobb hard for the first 3 innings and Cobb had enough. Following this altercation AL president Ban Johnson fined Cobb $100 and suspended him indefinitely. This was the last Tiger game in New York and they next traveled to Philadelphia to play the A's. Cobb's teammates decided to support him and refused to play until he was reinstated, they did this under threat of suspension by Johnson. Johnson also said that the Tigers would be fined $5,000 for each missed game. Tiger owner Frank Naven was not about the pay the fine, so he recruited ball players from the local area to play the next game. He found 12 players in all, and paid them all to play until the regular players returned from their strike. You can imagine what a mismatch this was, and the Tiger manager left the pitcher in for the entire game.

The players ended their strike the next day after Johnson reduced the fine to $50 and the suspension to 10 games.

2 comments:

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